


Triangles

by Kaylee_Winchester



Category: No Fandom - Personal Work
Genre: Abusive boyfriend flashbacks, Band geek, Crushes, F/M, Fluffy Boyfriend, Forbidden crushes, Life of a high school girl, Love Triangle, Military Training, Panic, Sera is afraid of deep water, Shy nerdy girl, Sneaking Out, Teen love, Underage Drinking, Unsure, book nerd, sera learning to swim
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-01-05
Updated: 2019-01-05
Packaged: 2019-10-04 21:54:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,701
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17312531
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kaylee_Winchester/pseuds/Kaylee_Winchester
Summary: Seraphina Thorn is your typical high school girl. He’s read hundreds of books and is a total band geek. But then she sees something appearing in her life that she’s seen in books dozens of times. It’s a love triangle. And she’s in the middle of it.





	1. Chapter 1

My name is Seraphina Thorn. I’m a girl most would overlook, because I’m very average. About the normal height for a fifteen year old girl, maybe a bit shorter. Thick brown hair and a taste for country music and good books. I live a few miles away from a very small town and I absolutely love the life in the country. Sometimes, when the sun warms my skin and there’s a gentle breeze, I’ll climb my favorite tree in our five acres and sit among the branches, soaking up the sunlight and enjoying a good book. That’s my definition of paradise.

 

But I don’t find myself in paradise at the moment. Because right now I’m sitting in the back of a smelly school bus on my way to where I spend what seems like the majority of my life these days. Children scream and yell at each other and I shove a pair of earbuds in my ears and snuggle down in my track and field sweatshirt. I hate school busses. I must be one of the only tenth grade students that can’t drive yet. But that’s because my parents insisted on buying me a manual car. I’m in the process of learning, but I’m not quite good enough to be driving on my own yet.

 

“Sera, join the world,” Kaleb says from across the isle. He’s playing Minecraft on his tablet.

 

“No, I don’t feel like it today.” I reply, turning away to look out the fogged window.

 

“Ok then... suit yourself.”

 

Kaleb turns away from me and continues with his game. Usually I’d join him, but something has been bugging me. I’ve found myself in the situation I’ve read about hundreds of times in books. My boyfriend, Jakob, is the most wonderful person ever. We’ve been dating since homecoming. But there’s someone else. A military boy namedKasey. Ever since we’d been told to work together on a project in biology, we’d starting becoming closer and closer friends. I don’t know if he knows about Jakob, but he’s asked me to go shooting with him or going go-kart racing after school a couple times. I politely turned him down. But I don’t know how long I can keep this up. Maybe I’m just being dramatic and it’s nothing. But sometimes I find myself dreaming about Kasey when it should be Jakob I’m thinking about. It’s the perfect love triangle. But nowhere near perfect for me.

 

“We’re here,” Kaleb says, shoving his tablet into his backpack and standing up to leave the bus. I tug on my earbuds and wind them around my iPod and shove it in mypocket to follow him outside. My parents got me a flip phone and told me that I could buy myself a smartphone when I could pay the bills. So out of embarrassment I never bring the phone anywhere and I act as though the iPod is just like anyone else’s phones. Because at first glance, it looks like the phone a normal teenage girl would be constantly clutching.

 

The high school doors squeak when we open them and we go our separate ways. Like every day, I’m going to the band hall. Band is my sanctuary. It’s where I go when I don’t know what to do. It’s also the one place in the entire school that holds nothing but good memories.

 

I walk the halls without speaking to anyone. The heels of my cowboy boots click as I walk down a flight of stairs. I enter the band hall and feel a sense of comfort. I hear some random trumpet player blasting jingle bells for the upcoming holidays and I round the corner to see my favorite people on the earth. Band kids. They are scattered around the hall, some sitting on the floor and others on the bench. A few chase each other around, slamming the doors to the practice rooms and barricading themselves in with the piano. I feel the corners of my lips turn up in a smile as I walk to my spot at the end of the bench and set my backpack down. I look around, wondering if Jakob is here yet.

 

“Hey, Sera,”

 

I jump and spin around to see Jacob standing right behind me. His blonde hair ruffled like it always is and a smile on his face. His nose and cheeks are slightly red from the morning chill but he looks warm and comforting as always.

 

“Hi!” I say happily, hugging him tightly. He hugs me back and for just a moment all the weight lifts off my shoulders and everything in the world is calm. Then he lets me go and thousands of things rush back into my mind. But I’ll tell you of those problems later, because it’s quite the list.

 

“How was your weekend?” He asks, sitting down on the bench. I sit next to him and sigh.

 

“It was good. I went to my grandparents house for Christmas. And I got this!”

 

I reach down into my bag and pull out a silver and black Harry Potter water bottle.

 

“Nice!” He says with a grin as I put it back.

 

“Have you talked to your parents about the movie yet?” I question, I’d mustered up the courage about a week ago to ask him on my first ever date. We were going to go see Spider-Man into the Spider-Verse. But he had swim practice.

 

“Yeah, I was thinking we could maybe go later this week?”

 

“Sounds great!” I smile.

 

“Come on guys! Let’s go!” The band director shouts, walking out of his office and into the band room.

 

I hop up and run to my band locker, twisting the padlock until it clicks open. I pull out my flute and piccolo and grab the music folder from where it had been shoved all the way to the end of the locker. I’m lucky I didn’t get a locker any higher up or I’d never be able to reach anything.

 

I see Jakob grab his trumpet out of his locker and I walk into the band room with a slight spring in my step.


	2. Chapter 2

The 45 minutes of band seem to fly by and all too soon, I’m taking apart my instruments and setting them lovingly back in their soft cases. I click the latches shut and stand up, grabbing the music off of the stand and scanning the room for Jakob. I spot him a couple rows back, closing his trumpet case and hurrying over to me. 

“I don’t want to go to speech class,” I whine to him, remembering I have to do a debate today. 

“You’ll do fine. I know it.”

Jakob smiles at me and I believe him. I will do fine. I’m worrying over nothing... right?

We lock our instruments up just as the bell rings, signaling the end of class. Jakob and I walk in silence until I feel a growing bubble of panic. I abruptly stop walking and a few people grumble and shoulder past me. Jakob walks a couple more steps and realizes I’ve stopped. He walks back to me and pulls me to the side of the hall. 

“Hey,” He says gently, grabbing my now shaking hand. “You’ll do fine. Remember once you’re done with this debate you’re done with the whole class. This is the last assignment of the semester, right?”

I nod, staring at the classroom door. What a wonderful time for my social anxiety to kick in. 

“Go get ‘em, tiger.” Jakob says with a smile. 

I say nothing and walk to the door. I take a quick deep-ish breath and walk inside. Four desks sit at the front of the room with a lectern in the middle. I set my bag down and take a seat on the one closest to the door just in case I embarrass myself so much I have to make a run for it. Because I know that’s a possibility. Then I realize something that makes my stomach churn. I never printed my notes!

I yank my laptop out of my bag and log in, fingers flying over the keyboard. I connect to the school internet and find my online notes, frantically clicking. Two minutes until the debate starts. 

I slam on the print button and stand to run to the FFA room, the closest printer. Then I see an alert pop up my my computer screen and I bend down to read it. 

“Please sign in before printing.”

UGH

I type my username and password and take off, slamming the door open and sprinting down the hall. I ram into the door, sending it flying open and I wretch the papers off the printer, not checking to make sure I didn’t grab anyone else’s like I normally would. 

I run back to the speech classroom and take my seat just as the bell rings. 

“Where were you?” My partner whispers anxiously. 

I hold up the papers but quickly lower my hand when I notice how much it’s shaking. 

“Alright!” The teacher stands behind his desk at the back of the room. “Are my two teams ready?”

No. No. I am far from ready. Can I go now? We all know I’m going to fail. So what’s the point of even trying? I should just go now. Yeah. Leave before I embarrass myself. 

“Yes, we’re ready.” I say with as steady of a voice I can get. 

“Heads or tails?” He asks, pulling a quarter from his pocket. 

“Tails,” My partner says. 

The other team shifts nervously and the coin is tossed into the air. The class turns around in their seats to see it flip through the air and land on the floor at the teacher’s feet. 

“Tails!” He declares, scooping up the coin and dropping it into his desk and taking a seat. 

“We’d like to speak second.” I state, meeting the icy stair of my opponents on the other side of the lectern. 

It goes in a blur. My opponents step forward to recite their written speech and after that my partner stands to recite ours. Then they go into crossfire. Even though I know little about debates and the topic we’re discussing, I can tell it’s not going well for my team. My partner sits down after two minutes of stuttering arguments and I stand up to go over the other team’s contentions and I attempt to throw together some facts in an argument. I sit back down and the other team totally knocks it out of the park. I feel like I’m going to throw up from nervousness. 

“Seraphina. It’s your turn for crossfire with Lexi.” My partner whispers to me. I snap out of my panicked daze and realize I should’ve been taking notes the whole time she was talking. I pick up my blank notebook and our papers with our facts and stand to face Lexi. She has a full page of notes. I try to hide that I have nothing. 

She asks me when some of our data has last been updated. 

I don’t know! This year? A hundred years ago? What?

Four minutes. Four minutes of confusion. Four minutes of embarrassing myself in front of an entire class. I am the youngest person here. The rest are juniors and seniors. I’m the only sophomore that decided to pick this class this semester. Why? Why did I do this to myself? Why didn’t I wait until next year. I’d at least like to know some of the people I argue against. Instead I’m the tiny sophomore girl arguing with seniors that are a foot taller than me!

“Seraphina?” The teacher says, snapping me back to the present. I had been fumbling with papers and saying nothing for a good twenty seconds. “Your argument?”

“I...” I look around to see twenty-six pairs of eyes trained on me. I feel my throat tighten. No. Not now. You will NOT cry in front of twenty-six upperclassmen. “I have no counter argument.” I mumble, feeling my face flush. I take my seat a minute early, leaving Lexi to awkwardly stand for the rest of the minute. 

“What was that?” My partner snaps, rounding on me. 

“I don’t know. I panicked-“

“You just lost us the debate!”

I feel tears stinging my eyes and I look down at my blank notebook. 

“Just take some notes I’ll do the rest.” My partner snarls, standing up to do the final crossfire with our opponents. 

I hand her notes as she requests and stay silent for the rest of the debate. 

“Okay. Who votes con?” The teacher asks at the end of class. 

One person. One person raises their hand for my team. 

“Pro?”

Twenty five hands shoot up into the air. 

“Oh-“ I start, only to be silenced by a glare from my partner. The bell rings and I unceremoniously fold my notes and shove them in my pocket, leaving my unused notebook and pencil on the desk for someone else to deal with. I rush from the room to see Jakob waiting in the hall. 

“How did it go?”

I say nothing and fling myself into his arms, burrowing into his shirt. It’s safe here and nobody can see my tears. Nobody can see how much I’m shaking. 

“It’s over. You don’t have to do it again. It’s over.” He whispers, hugging me tightly. 

I finally let go and give him a small smile as I walk to my next class. The rest of the day goes by as slow as a snail. Finally I find myself walking to seventh hour English 10. I drop my iPod in the pouch by the door and take my seat. People slowly flow into the classroom, some putting their phones in the pouches and some sneaking them in. I silently stare at my shoes. 

Then he walks in. Kasey. 

He drops his bag at the desk across the isle from me and I feel an immediate calm wash over me. 

“Hey,” He says, sitting down. 

“Hey,” I sigh. “How’s your day going?”

“Well, the truck line is going back to the gravel roads after school. Want to join?”

I shake my head. “My parents would never let me.”

“Aw. That sucks. I’m taking Ryan’s truck. Hopefully we don’t get stuck again.”

“Well if you do, call me we’ve got a tractor that can probably pull ya out.”

He nods and laughs. 

“Did you get your biology homework done?” I say with a grin. 

He looks at me like a deer in headlights. 

“Biology... homework?”

“Yes, the cell parts worksheet?”

He stays silent. 

“I’ll take that as a no.” I laugh. 

“Shit...”

“Alright. Today is another work day for your essays. They’re due Friday. You’ve got all week.” The teacher announces, turning on some music and pulling out a book. 

I’m glad I got my essay done over the weekend. Now I have free time. I pull out my biology folder and sort through papers until I find the homework. Then I pass it to Kasey. 

“Thank you,” He whispers gratefully. 

“You’re welcome.” I whisper back. 

Ten minutes later he passes the paper back to me and I put it away in my bag. I turn back to my computer to resume browsing Pinterest only to see that my mouse isn’t working. I check, and sure enough the plugin is missing. 

“Kasey...” I hiss. 

“What?” He says guiltily through a smirk. 

“You know what. Give me my plugin.”

“What plugin?”

I lunge and we silently wrestle each other, my fingers trying to pry his hand open to get the plugin that I know he has clenched in his fist. But he’s stronger than me. He’s been in the Sea Cadets for over a year now and he’s been training hard. So he easily overpowers a small girl such as me. But I still try. He eventually gives in and opens his hand, allowing me to snatch the tiny plugin and shove it back into my laptop. I grumble at him but I’m trying hard to not laugh out loud. He snickers and turns back to his computer and I turn back to mine.

**Author's Note:**

> This story may be slow to update but I know I’ve got something good going here. Hang in there and happy reading!


End file.
